Getting 8 hours of sleep a day will not only optimize your body functions for your daily activities, but this may also prevent you from having heart disease, diabetes and other health problems.

How much is enough sleep?

Strive to get 8 hours of sleep each night to help your body and brain fully recuperate from the day's activities. Allowing even about 7.5 hours nightly sleep is associated with better maintenance of physical health-related quality of life and makes people with medical illness do better.48

Adults typically need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep daily, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but many get far less, and several studies have begun to show the health consequences of not getting enough sleep. Less than 7 hours of sleep daily has been linked to higher rates of obesity, illness and death.

Lack of sleep may result in diabetes

An inadequate amount of night sleep, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle and overeating, may fuel the development of diabetes. Experimental short sleep times facilitated the development of insulin resistance and reduced glucose tolerance.49 Shorter sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of having hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) among preschool Chinese children,50 according to a study.

Lack of sleep can lead to hypertension

People who sleep less than 5 total hours are twice as likely to have high blood pressure compared to those who sleep 6 hours or more. On the other hand, longer measured sleep is associated with lower calcification incidence.51

Lack of sleep impairs performance

Lack of sleep impairs not only your physical abilities but also your mental performance. So to optimize learning when you are studying, it is always best that you get enough sleep. Many hours of studying without sleep is less efficient compared to a few hours of studying after a good 8 hours of sleep.

Staying awake 24 hours in a row impairs performance to a level comparable to that of a person intoxicated with alcohol.

For a growing baby, frequent sleeping and napping during the day is important for his growth and development. For instance, taking a nap may promote abstraction in language-learning infants and appear to promote a qualitative change in their memory.54 For children aged 4 to 5 years, taking a nap during the day may help reduce hyperactivity, anxiety and depression.However, for most adults who take a regular 7-9 hours of night sleep, a day nap is not necessary. But to some adults, a nap of less than 30 min duration during the day promotes wakefulness and enhances performance and learning ability.55 In contrast, the habit of taking frequent and long naps may be associated with higher morbidity and mortality.

Don't oversleep

If lack of sleep is bad for your health, oversleeping is not good either. Sleeping too much can reduce life expectancy, according to a study.56 Though, sleeping too much might also be secondary to an underlying health problem, several studies suggest that it is best to take not less than 7 hours but not more than 9 hours of sleep per night.